Ten years ago, we wrote about the emergence of grassroots computing. We were well into an open source, social, web services landscape where the traditional CIO function had perfected generic IT, but was only beginning to empower employees to build the tools that enabled them to execute their area of the business more effectively. The basic idea is that every IT project can’t be custom developed, h... More »

Titles are not credentials. They help describe the responsibilities of an individual to facilitate success. The secret is that people decide what other people should be titled. It is in this unseen step that the train comes off the track. So, what do we do about it? Only promote after the individual is acting in the role. Following this rule does two things. First, it instantly puts meaning into o... More »

I am often accused of being a pessimist and always discard the idea as inexact. People say I am a realist and it is absent still of who I am. Complicated for sure. One of the most significant ways I see the world is through the eyes of many. Somewhere in the multitudes of perspectives I find what is true. To get to there I will have adopted perspectives not my own, views created by where and with ... More »

Customer designed solutions are radically flawed. IT people do that to manage their business counterparts. â€œYou asked for X and I gave you X. Hope you can drive adoption!â€ This demands too little from the business to articulate the value proposition â€“ the users, defined market, unique difference and desired outcome. This absolves IT from having to contribute to the leadership of thinking, di... More »

Everyone wants a data scientist, yet most have no idea what that would mean â€“ itâ€™s the cool thing to want and even cooler thing to sell. The problem with data science is that it will take time to evolve technology, business and industry to make the discipline and role effective. Until then you actually want something even more rare than the data scientist, a software engineer who knows data. T... More »